Category: Running

For the well deserved participants in the Eastleigh 10K, you should have received our exclusive offers in your race pack.

Until 30th April, you can take advantage of any of these offers:

Free 1-2-1 Pilates. Pilates is a fantastic addition to your running training. It helps develop strength, balance and movement control so that you can run more efficiently, preventing injuries. We run over 20 specialist Pilates classes a week. Why not come along for a free 1-2-1 with one of our Clinical Instructors to find out if Pilates could help you. Read more.

Free Shockwave assessment. If you’re struggling with a stubborn, long standing injury such as achilles problems or plantar fasciitis, Shockwave Therapy could be the solution. Book a free assessment to find out. Read more.

Free computerised foot analysis. Recurrent injuries or daily aches and pains can often be caused by your foot position. Come along and find out if your feet are causing any issues for you. Read more.

15% Off Sports Massage. Helping ease post run soreness, and daily stresses, aches and pains, a sports massage is a great way to invest in your wellbeing. You can claim 15% off as many times as you like before 30th April! Read more.

To book any of these special race pack offers, just give our team a call on 023 8025 3317 and quote EASTLEIGH10K.

No one wants an injury, particularly runners. Not being able to run because of an injury is highly frustrating.

The good news is, so many running injuries can be avoided very easily with the right understanding, knowledge, preparation and planning.

Here, we’d like to share with you some top ways of helping to prevent an injury if you’re a runner.

Warm Up Effectively

A solid warm up should consist of foam rolling (which can improve performance), mobility work to maximise joint health and longevity, dynamic stretching and muscle activation to fire up the key players in running (calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes). Running backwards is a great way of activating your glutes which play a huge role in stabilising the hips and promoting good form when running forwards. Read more about warming up here.

Route Knowledge

Know your run. If you’re heading out on a new route, make sure you know the terrain, any obstacles, gradients or side-planes and are equipped for the specific weather and conditions that you’re running in.

Train Smart

Increase mileage safely and run with proper form. There are so many resources now online to help guide and direct your training in a ‘smart’ way. This is crucial to preventing injuries if you’re serious about progressing your running. Joining a running club or group is a great way to get guidance and support too.

Increasing Mileage

Beginners should avoid increasing their mileage every week. Instead try every 3-4 weeks. Add an extra day into your running week to increase your weekly mileage. Advanced runners should increase their mileage by 5-10% of their current mileage and remain there until they’re comfortable. This may take several weeks. Injury can occur easily if you ramp up your speed or mileage too quickly. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!

Form

If you’ve been injury free for a long time and you aren’t looking to shave seconds off of your PB, we wouldn’t advise you to alter your running form. Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t a ‘perfect’ running technique. Technique only really needs addressing if it’s causing you problems, if not, then don’t try and change it!

However, if you have an injury and a gait analysis suggests you would benefit from altering your form, it would make sense to address this issue. You might try to reduce your stride length so that you plant the foot with a vertical shin, this will reduce the forces transmitted through your legs and limit any deceleration from planting your foot too far forward. Also, try to maintain space between the knees. Allowing the thigh to internally rotate or drop in when you run can lead to overuse injuries occurring at the hip, knee and foot.

Footwear Advice

Ensure that you wear a comfortable shoe that fits well. Rubbing and blisters can put an end to anybody’s run. Don’t be tempted to buy the shoes that look the nicest, fashion won’t help keep you injury free. If you have low arches, find a shoe that supports you in the areas that you need it. Seek professional advice from a reputable running shop where you can try the shoes and they have video gait analysis. Read more about the importance of getting your footwear right here.

Strength Work Between Runs

A stronger kinetic chain will decrease ground reaction forces (GRF), making running more comfortable and more efficient. Working on your core stability will promote the transfer of forces from your upper and lower limbs, meaning less work for your legs. Strong glutes will stabilise your hips and prevent poor biomechanical loading from occurring. Pilates is a great way to help this or specific strength and conditioning exercises.

Balance & Proprioception

Proprioception is your body’s awareness of where it is in space – so your joints and brain and muscles all talking to each other! Along with balance, it’s a crucial component to keeping you injury free. It enables your body to cope and respond to uneven terrain, pot holes and curbs and varied weather conditions. Both are very trainable with the right exercises.

If you’ve ever sprained an ankle and haven’t undergone a rehabilitation programme, the chances of you re-spraining that same ankle are very high. After an injury your ankle suffers from a loss of proprioceptive ability and strength, which needs to be rebuilt with balance, proprioception and strength work. If you’re lucky enough to have never sprained an ankle but enjoy running both on and off road, lower limb stability with balance and proprioception work should be a part of your regular gym routine.

Catching Minor Injuries In The Early Stages (Recognition & Treatment)

Being able to recognise the early stages of injury will allow you to nip them in the bud before they become an issue. Examples include plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, shin splints, runners knee or patella tendinopathy, ITB syndrome and muscle strains. As soon as any signs or symptoms are noticed, your best option is to consult an injury specialist. We all know what muscle soreness (DOMS) feels like. If it’s a different pain, don’t run through it or just think you can rest, it will disappear and then you can get straight back to your 10 miles!

We provide you with easy access to help and support if you’ve developed a running injury. The majority of running injuries are what we term ‘overuse injuries‘ and need a highly trained and experienced professional to really help you get to the root cause and address it effectively.

Cool Down Correctly

Exercise causes our muscles to break down on a microscopic level, which can lead to muscle shortening if left untreated. Stretching after running will help maintain the resting length of your muscles and prevent any imbalances from occurring. Sports massage is a great way of helping recover too. A sports massage will help flush out any lactic acid and waste products left sitting in your muscles following exercise, as well as promote the flow of nutrient-rich blood to those areas to facilitate healing and decrease recovery times.

Sleep

Sleep is very important when talking about injury prevention in runners. When you sleep, hormones are released that promote recovery. When you don’t get enough sleep, stress hormones and inflammatory markers remain elevated which adversely affects your ability to recover. These hormones can also alter appetite regulation, potentially leading to weight gain. To remain injury-free, you need to sleep and recover to the best of your ability. Establish good habits by going to and getting out of bed at the same time each day, and try to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep each night as a minimum, 8 hours is great. Read how we think sleep is the magic elixir for runners on a previous blog here.

Do these eBibs from ilovetorun resonate with anyone? Certainly ‘run true’ for a lot of injured runners we see at the clinic!

Alongside running (obviously) it’s great for runners to have a good mix of activities as part of their training.

Why? Well, not only does it help prevent injury by mixing up the demands placed upon your body from repetitive activity, it also gives the opportunity to build strength, flexibility and other aspects of fitness that will actually help your running. Exercises like Pilates can be great for helping optimise your movement control but equally important is brining in some specific strength and conditioning work.

Here we’d like to share with you Sports & Rehab Therapist Francesca’s top picks for S&C exercises that are great for runners. All of these can be done with or without weight and progressed as and when appropriate. Strength training should be completed at least once a week along side your running.

Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, grabbing the bar with anoverhand or mixed grip. Keep your back flat with your chest up and out. Keep yourhead in line with your spine,your heels down, and shoulders over the bar.

Push your hips backward like you’re going to sit down and bend your knee into asingle leg squat position to lightly touch the chair with your bottom.

Slowly return to the starting position.Keep your knee aligned with your second toe.

If you find this hard then please do as we did in the room start sitting, stand upusing one leg, place second foot to stand and then sit down with both feet on the ground.

Single Leg Glute Bridge

Start in crook lying, with legs bent, feet flat on the floor.

Lift one leg off the floor and go up into a shoulder bridge, peeling one vertebrae at a time.

Keeping the leg out straight and the thigh in line with the other thigh, lower yourself onto the ground and lift yourself back up, peeling one vertebrae at a time.

Repeat this with both legs.

If you’d like to add some S&C training to your running routine and aren’t sure where to start, get in touch. We’d be happy to put together a specific programme for you. You can then do this independently or for more support, join one of our small group rehab programmes.

How much movement control do you have when you’re running? And why does it matter?

There’s a really quick little test you can do to quickly screen stability and control in your leg – just take a look at the video below.

If it looks familiar to you, give the 6 great exercises demonstrated by Sports & Rehabilitation Therapist, Tom, a go.

Why is it important to have good movement control if you’re a runner?

Many runners lack some crucial areas of control in the key leg muscle groups. Given the repetitive nature of running, often over great distances and with demands of endurance, lack of muscle control can put you at risk of picking up many common overuse injuries.

You can easily do all these exercises at home with a few simple pieces of equipment such as resistive band and a small step.

If you’d like more help or support, we offer a specialised Running Rehab service.

It’s a completely customised service, focused on you and your running to help you get the most benefit and enjoyment and a long term love for running!

Being pro-active about preventing injuries for runners is well worth the investment! When you’ve seen hundreds of frustrated runners who can’t run because of an injury, the disappointment is awful. So, investing some time doing a few simple exercises like those above is well worth it.

We work with hundreds of runners, from couch to 5k enthusiasts just starting out their running journey to ultra marathon runners. We more often than not see them to help, when pain or injury has impacted on what they love to do – run! However, we know that so many runners who are injured seek other sources of help to get them back running after an injury.

Are you a runner who’s been injured in the last year or so? If so, goPhysio are interested to hear more about your experiences and what matters most to you. Many runners ask a fellow runner for injury advice, take a ‘wait and see approach’ or do their own research online with mixed results. goPhysio are interested in finding out more about your frustrations and successes when an injury gets in the way of your love of running.

So, if you have 5 minutes to spare, please click on this link to tell us more about your experiences.

WOW! What an experience it was, going to London to watch my Sister Helen, in her first London Marathon yesterday! I’m still buzzing from the energy and excitement of the day.

The London Marathon is one of the biggest and most popular mass participation events in the world! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect on the day. Given that I like to be prepared, I did a fair bit of research so that we would see Helen at a few points, whilst keeping our travel efficient and manageable. Here’s how our day panned out!

Setting Off

We were traveling up from Winchester & Southampton, so decided to park at Westfield, where day charges are pretty reasonable, there are good tube links and we were the right side of London for getting home at the end of the day. It was an early (7am) start, so we could make sure we got parked and allowed enough time for traveling to our first viewing point.

Stop 1

From Westfield, we took the Central Line from Shepherd’s Bush to Bank. And from Bank we took the DLR (thankfully the industrial action strike was called off) to the Cutty Sark. We had originally planned to get off at Greenwich DLR, which on reflection I think we should have done, as the Cutty Sark station and area was very busy – but it worked out OK.

From the Cutty Sark DLR station we walked past the Cutty Sark, through the University of Greenwich gardens, to Romney Road – directly opposite the National Maritime Museum. This point was just after Mile 6. We arrived there in ample time, by around 10am. At this point we had great, unobstructed views of the route. We were right near a drinks station for the Elite men. Referring to the really handy Pace Guide (from the Marathon website) we timed our arrival so that we’d see the Elite men pass, which they did at around 10.28am.

It was amazing watching these athletes speed past us – great to see and it really got the crowds going, ready for the masses.

The masses started coming through 10 or 15 minutes later. Such a sight! The cheering and encouragement was infectious and we were soon carried away, calling out the names on the shirts of passing runners, ‘high fiving’ those on our side and clapping away! The heat really was intense and some runners were already struggling at mile 6.

The Marathon App was fantastic. You could enter the race numbers of those you wanted to see and track their location real time – this was absolutely invaluable. With so many runners, it was difficult to spot people, so if you knew to expect them coming, you were much less likely to miss them.

We also made some flags and had them on extendable flag poles (a fantastic find – light and collapsed down to fit in my bag!). Just bought plain flags from eBay and used iron on transfer paper for our personal message – very cheap and effective!

Having the flags meant our runner could easily spot us in amongst the spectators. We had also told Helen where to expect to see us and she wrote the miles on her arm, so she had a quick reference to refer to so she’d know when to look out. These 2 things she said really helped – without the flags, it would have been very hard for her to have seen us.

So, our plans all worked out and we were beyond excited to see Helen run towards us still looking fresh and full of energy at Mile 6. A quick passing high 5 and some encouraging cheers, and she was on her way!

Stop 2

And so were we! From here, we walked back through the University Gardens, past the Cutty Sark and went under the Thames via the Greenwich foot tunnel to the Isle of Dogs. There was a very short wait to access the tunnel but it was very well managed. It was only open 1 way, so you couldn’t have accessed it to get the other direction.

From the other side of the Thames, we made our way through Millwall Park up to East Ferry Road (near the Mudchute DLR). This took us about half an hour or so.

We found a great spot to watch just after Mile 17. There were lots of grassy banks to rest on and have some much needed refreshments. Again the app was fab, as we could see exactly when to look out for Helen.

At Mile 17 she was still looking amazing – lots of smiles and full of energy!

As we left this point and walked up towards mile 18, there were lots of runners walking and stopping at the side of the road. Not sure if people hit a bit of a wall at this point, but we definitely saw some struggling.

Our plan from here was to walk up to Westferry DLR Station and see Mile 20 but we realised this was unrealistic and so we amended our plans.

Stop 3

Instead we walked to Canary Wharf DLR station. It took a while to get over the footbridge to Canary Wharf, so this slowed us down quite a bit (it may have been easier to try and get on the DLR at Crossharbour or South Quay). From Canary Wharf, we took the Jubilee line toLondon Waterloo. This tube was BUSY (and hot & sweaty, nice!). The driver advised the passengers that it was unlikely they were going to stop at Westminster due to congestion, so advised people to get off at Waterloo. We’d already hear it wasn’t advised to try and access the end via Westminster, so had already planned to get off at Waterloo – which was a wise move.

From Waterloo, we headed straight to Waterloo Bridge (again avoiding Westminster Bridge). Tracking Helen on the app, it was a race against time as she was running along Victoria Embankment towards the bridge as we were in the bridge! So, we literally had to run to see her! We successfully spotted her between miles 24 and 25 as she ran under the bridge – with a great view from the bridge.

Had we known that timing would have been so tight, we would have tried to move faster from our previous stop. We would then have had time to get down to Victoria Embankment to see her from the ground.

The End

From Waterloo Bridge, we walked up towards Trafalgar Square, up The Mall and under Admiralty Arch to the meeting point. Meeting points were labelled according to finishers surname. They weren’t easy to find given the sheer volume of people, but the official helpers were great at pointing us in the right direction. Checking the app, we could see that she’d finished and should be on her way.

4 hours 10 minutes – brilliant!

We spotted Helen walking to the meeting point and it was congratulatory hugs and celebrations all round! She was full of smiles and had an amazing run.

It was pretty overwhelming seeing all these runners celebrating their achievements with their medals proudly hung round their necks, wearing their finishers T Shirts. We even saw a marriage proposal!

From here we all headed for a much needed cool drink and finally made our way home.

This spectator route certainly needed some level of fitness! We clocked up over 20,000 steps and covered almost 15km! But we certainly couldn’t complain about our sore feet & legs having witnessed the extremes the runners pushed themselves to!

This plan was based on timing for a 4 hour marathon, so could obviously be adjusted accordingly for different times.

Alternative Plan

Our alternative (less ambitious plan or had the DLR strike gone ahead) was to have travelled from Westfield to Tower Hill and watched at Mile 13/14 The Highway and then again at Mile 22 The Highway. Some of Helen’s other supporters chose this option, which worked really well. The added bonus of this for the runner was that they saw some familiar faces at 4 points during the race, which was a real motivator!

Top Tips

Having reflected on the day and our plans, it all worked out great! Here are our top tips!

Take plenty of food and drink. The schedule was pretty tight and everywhere was so busy, that there wasn’t much time for stopping off for refreshments. We did find an Asda at Mile 17, but the lunch time food selection was already sold out by the time we got there, so we had to be creative!

Download the app to track your runners – absolutely invaluable.

Take some flags or similar accessory and make your runner(s) aware of it. It will really help them find you amongst the crowds.

Get the runners to write on their arm which miles to expect to see you. This will really help motivate them and remind them to look out for you.

Prepare for the weather adequately! On reflection, we needed sun hats, sun screen and flip flops given the unprecedented heat this year. However, we could have just as likely needed rain coats & hoodies – it’s a long day out in the open, so do bring the right clothing.

If you want to go for something to eat and/or drink after the event, think about booking somewhere. Everywhere is, unsurprisingly, extremely busy. Make sure you allow enough time to get there from your meeting point too, the crowds definitely slow everything down!

Well done! You’ve completed your 10k race! If you’re a 10k regular, you may have learnt the bast way to tackle post race recovery. But for some, it may be your first 10k event. What you do after an event can really help or hinder your recovery and set you on the right path for continuing your running journey!

Not sure what is best to do to help your recovery. Well don’t worry, here are goPhysio’s top tips for your recovery:

Cool Down – you cross the finish line and the last thing you want to do is keep moving, but a gentle jog or walk will help to steadily slow down your heart rate and allow the build up of waste products in the muscles to be flushed out.

Hydration – Keeping hydrated is essential to allow the muscle to stay elastic and malleable; after all your muscle are made up of up to 70% water.

Refuel – within 30 mins of your race it is important to refuel with a small meal high in carbohydrates and protein. This will help to prevent the onset of muscle soreness as this is the optimal time that the body will use the carbohydrates to rebuild glycogen stores.

Rest– after you have celebrated running your 1st,5th,15th 10km race, get an early night. Sleep is when our body heals, so it is important to give your body the best chance of healing those sore muscles and giving you the best recovery.

Active Recovery – The day after your 10k race try to get your body moving, go for a walk, swim, cycle or even a light jog. This will get you heart pumping increasing circulation around the body continuing to flush out any waste products (lactic acid).

Massage – Book yourself a sports massage. You have trained hard and reached your goal of running the 10km so why not treat yourself to a recovery massage the day after the race. This will help relax those tight muscles, increase the blood flow to the muscle and help prevent DOMS. Don’t forget to take advantage of our race day offers, you can get 20% off your sports massage until 30th April.

Listen to your body – if your feeling sore a day or two after your run then try to listen to your body and what it needs. Take your time to get back into your running routine.

Celebrate – you’ve done it, what a great achievement! Be proud of yourself and celebrate what you’ve achieved. Whether it’s your first 10k or one of many, well done from us all at goPhysio!

We are delighted to feature a guest blog today from Mike Chambers, Running Coach (Running with Us)

As the Eastleigh 10k 2019 fast approaches and we all look nervously at the weather hoping there is no repeat of last years March snow, now is the time to get the final weeks of training right to ensure our legs feel ready to run when the gun goes!

In these last 10 days all our training gains have been achieved and banked and now is the time to protect our fitness. But tapering for a 10k can be tricky to get right.

The Taper

The greatest fear among many new runners is getting to the start line tired from training in the last week, but in my experience, backing off too much is more likely to leave you feeling flat come the big day. Our bodies crave routine. If you have been running 3 times a week, keep to that in your final week – including the actual race in your weekly volume. Look to reduce volume of miles and training intensity but keep the overall structure to your week.

So, no big efforts or hard track or hill sessions this week. 2-3 easy runs of 20-30 minutes, perhaps finishing with the final 5-10 minutes near your planned race pace will be plenty to keep your legs ticking over and familiar with the speed you will need on the day.I also encourage a short run the day before the race. Just 15 minutes or so at an easy pace with 2-3 blasts of 30 seconds near race pace will clear your legs ready for Sunday.

Fueling

In a world of super foods and diet programmes and get fit quick solutions, I like to keep things simple when we think about our running nutrition.

As long as you are eating a sensible balanced diet, keep to it, no major changes and no major carb load! The small taper in your training in the last week will act as a carb load if you maintain your usual diet. Yes, to a carb based meal the night before but try and have this early in the evening. And this does not need to be super sized! That will just leave you feeling heavy on the start line. A better approach is to graze through Saturday with little and often approach to quality foods.

Make sure your body is hydrated through those last few days, and don’t go chugging water Sunday morning…you will feel heavy…and be in a long queue for the toilet. Keep up some electrolyte in take through a sports drink on the day. Gels – realistically unless running over 70-80 minutes for the 10k, you won’t need fueling during the race, your body will have all the glycogen stores you need to fire you to the finish.

Race Day Preparation

Most runners I know are creatures of habit and getting the timetable right on the day is critical to avoid a full meltdown! This works best by working backwards from the race start time, breakfast around 2 hours before this and then maybe a light snack (banana) an hour before.

Thinking through travel and parking on the day. Kit laid out day before. Race number pinned on and check and double check have everything you need…..remember the weather in March can vary significantly …this could be vest or t shirt, but equally we may be looking at a base layer in extreme circumstances. A layer to keep on to the very last minute also worth having

Race day is about trusting in your training and committing to what you set out to do, be it just get round or chasing that PB. Visualise achieving your goal, crossing the line and getting the medal and t-shirt will help you to make that your reality.

So, to all of you doing your first 10k, chasing a new PB or whatever your motivation for getting out there on race day, smile, commit to your pace and the very best of luck.

Foam rolling or self myo-fascial release, is a great addition to your exercise schedule. It’s a fantastic way to help your body ward of injuries. But there are a number of alternatives to the traditional foam roller, and here’s a few we love!

MB1 Trigger Point Massage Ball

A great alternative to a foam roller is the MB1 or MB5 ball

Great for targeting smaller areas such as feet, calves, hip flexors, piriformis, pecs, shoulders, forearms and the back of the neck.

The foam surface allows it to ‘grip’ the areas that need attention whilst the different densities of foam allow it to target deep muscles whilst remaining comfortable.

Extremely convenient for travel and portability.

Swap the foam roller out for this small, effective myofascial tool!

MB5 Trigger Point Massage Ball

This larger massage ball can be applied to muscles in a very similar way to that of a foam roller.

The layered construction offers varying levels of pressure, making sure you’re hitting the right spots but remaining in a comfortable zone.

Nano Foot Roller

Nano Foot Roller

Excellent at relieving tension throughout the forearms or the bottom of the foot, where the size of a foam roller would produce less effective results.

The small, portable tool will help channel blood to the right areas and get rid of those aches and pains, as well as give you the ability to treat minor injuries such as plantar fasciitis.

Also very useful for acute pain along the bottom of the foot; a frozen water bottle. You get the hardness of a roller with the pain relieving effects of ice.

Massage Stick

Great if you don’t enjoy lying on the ground or having to change positions with a foam roller.

This massage still allows you to roll large muscle groups with varying degrees of pressure.

Applied most frequently to the lower limb, this massage stick is both highly effective and easily transported.

Spiky balls

Spiky Ball

Very similar to the Trigger Point massage ball, these spiky balls allow for a diverse range of rolling techniques whilst also offering a larger amount of tactile feedback (which helps to wake muscles up).

They come in a range of sizes and are a cost effective way to achieve the desired results (although may not last quite as long assume of the more hard wearing alternatives).

Apply to the same small areas such as the foot, calves, hip flexors, piriformis, pecs, shoulders, forearms and the back of the neck.

Roller Ball

This smooth roller ball features a hand-held base which allows the user to accurately target painful areas and perform soft tissue release with a self-prescribed amount of pressure.

Omni Massager Rollers

Excellent for targeting hard-to-reach spots with a foam roller, this massager can be used on the peroneals, tibalias anterior, quadriceps, hip flexors, groin, glutes, piriformis, lower back muscles, pecs, shoulders, neck and arms.

MB 2 Trigger Point Massage Ball

This adjustable massage ball is perfect for finding those sore spots in the neck and back. Use this ball to help with posture and back mobility.

When closed the ball targets the muscles attaching directly to the spine. When open it will target the larger muscles of the back.

We are trying to find out more about what injured runners do to get back to pain-free running, and would love to hear from you! If you’re interested in helping us out, please take a few moments to answer a couple of questions by clicking here. Many thanks.